Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Hockey teams, dance classes and even fiddle camps are a few examples of out-of-school programs and activities that are fun for kids, but not for all kids. You need to find a way to encourage the development of these qualities that people learn from physical education, and the type of self-esteem they get by being involved in these particular programs.

It’s a real shame that many children in the NWT are left out of these very precious opportunities. These experiences are left out. Why? Because many parents cannot afford the equipment or even the fees. If you are on income support, I can tell you right now, it doesn’t make it any easier. To be fair, income support does provide some money for some school-related things like bus passes – how fun is that? – or even gym shoes so they can play, but there are no allowances for outside activities, as I said earlier.

In this day and age, when schools are chopping away their budgets and Education Ministers continue to claw back money from what is the fun stuff, such as physical education, enrichment programs such as arts and music, these programs fall by the side. Isn’t the development of our young minds an occasion to develop these special things as well?

There is a real opportunity being missed. Surely government can find some way to help afford these things. We could provide some allowances for children to be involved in these very important programs. Don’t let financial burdens of poverty slip through the opportunity of developing and enriching these young minds that so readily deserve these chances.

Could the next Leela Gilday, Brendan Green, or even Shirley Firth somewhere be nestled between opportunity and poverty, with no way to break free for these opportunities that kids deserve? Allowances could be organized so we could pay directly to the organizations.

I know the Minister will complain and whine and grind and grope and moan and talk about the cost

of social programs. Yes, he is right, but investment is more than just infrastructure. It is about the investment of the bricks and mortar we call our children that we are building for tomorrow. We must do all we can to help build these bricks and mortar enrich the lives of our young people. We must find ways to show them that we care. Do not put up barriers. We will find new ways to open doors. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Lafferty.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize the president of Aurora College, Ms. Jane Arychuk, who is on annual leave to spend time with her family that are coming from the South. I would like to recognize her sister and brother-in-law, Karen and Kim Clouter, who are visiting from Ontario. Welcome to the Assembly.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize a constituent from Hay River South, Mr. Tim Coleman, in the gallery today.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Hawkins.

Mr. Speaker, maybe for sake of brevity, I will recognize the whole opportunities panel as one group. Thank you very much for your hard work. I’d like to recognize a constituent, Kevin Campbell, and if I had seen him earlier, I would have gotten the names of his visiting friends, so I will only assume it is family from the South. That said, welcome to everyone in the gallery today. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to welcome Ms. Jane Arychuk, a former resident of Fort Providence, also a former principal and teacher. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize Cathie Bolstad, a resident of Weledeh and well known by everybody, I am sure. Also, Elizabeth Portland with Ecology North and Natural History Group and other roles, and any other residents of Weledeh. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would also like to recognize not only a constituent but a member from Hay River, Tim Coleman, who travels quite a bit back and forth, and also the Mineral Strategy Group, thank you for coming today, especially Cathie Bolstad, who travels to Hay River regularly, annually for a golf tournament. It is good to see their support for Hay River as well. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Today I would like to welcome in the gallery Mr. Gerrand, our Conflict of Interest Commissioner of the Northwest Territories. Welcome, Mr. Gerrand. I would like to welcome everybody here. My sister Mary is in the gallery today. It is always good to have family.

Item 6, acknowledgements, Mr. Yakeleya.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to give my congratulations to Ms. Beverly Masuzumi from Fort Good Hope on receiving her Education Hall of Fame on May 30, 2013. Beverly is known for her true leadership in the past and her passion for educating the students in the Sahtu. She spent 10 years working to improve educational opportunities for our students by being part of the local education authority board and the Sahtu District Education Council, and was chair of the district education council for those six years.

On behalf of the Sahtu region, I would like to again congratulate Ms. Masuzumi on her strong belief in our education system, our students and our communities. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Item 7, oral questions. Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not sure who to ask my questions to and I am not even sure what to ask at this stage. You can tell I am a little frustrated with the lack of support for some very valuable NGOs. I don’t think we have really quantified the value that NGOs bring to a situation. If we as a government had to pay for the work that they do, we probably wouldn’t realize the same results and we probably couldn’t afford it.

The council that I refer to in Hay River is the Council for Persons with Disabilities. They teach literacy counselling; they fundraised $50,000 in the community to operate a handivan; they offer their food and shelter program; they have healthy food initiatives; they do a Community Gardening Program; they do PC training with clients that are in Hay River.

We have a facility in Hay River, an assisted living facility for persons with disabilities, as well, and we really appreciate having it there. Don’t get me wrong, but that facility costs this government about $4 million a year to operate and there are 10 clients there. If you do the math quickly, with all the overhead and everything, that is about $400,000 per client, and yet we have an NGO in Hay River that is out there working with people with disabilities in the community, in which they get from this government $35,000 per year. If that NGO were not doing this work, who would be doing it? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Beaulieu, Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A lot of the work that that particular NGO does now, I think, was done because there was a lack of services in that area in Hay River, so it would be difficult to say how they would be able to obtain those types of services if it wasn’t for that particular NGO group.

Could I get the Minister to concur that this NGO does do good and valuable work in our community, and the value of their work far exceeds the $35,000 a year which they get from this government and our given grief that goes along with it? Can the Minister concur this is valuable work worth far more than what they receive from this government? Thank you.

I’ve had the opportunity to meet with this group and I do agree that the work they do is very valuable. I had an opportunity to speak to the people that were in the office at the time taking a course. I personally knew all of them

in there and spoke with them, and they were very pleased to be given an opportunity to learn what they were learning there in working with this particular society. Thank you.